Steve Cohen

Sadly, after a long and painful illness, Steve Cohen died in March of
this year. He had dedicated his life to anti-racism and anti-Semitism,
particularly the welfare of immigrants and refugees and those seeking
the right to remain in the UK. Educated at Oxford University, Steve became
a human-rights lawyer in Manchester, founding a Law Centre and creating
the Immigration Aid Unit. He was politically opposed to immigration controls
in their totality and took part in many anti-deportation and immigration
campaigns both as a lawyer and a campaigner. The collection he deposited
at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre in 2001 highlights
this work, and dates especially from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The collection
comprises 12 archival boxes divided into different material types including
newspaper cuttings, leaflets, newsletters, videos, posters, photographs,
and also t-shirts, banners and badges. The archive details over 70 of
Manchester's anti-deportation and immigration campaigns, including those
of Anwar Ditta, Viraj Mendis, Nasira Begum and the Okolo family and shows
the grass roots nature of these campaigns.

Despite his illness, Steve Cohen continued to write about immigration
and campaigned for immigrants' rights, founding the 'No One is Illegal'
Group in September 2003. He changed the lives of many of the people he
helped and it is a fitting tribute that his collection is May's special feature for the Archives Hub. If you would like to look at the archive
or some of his publications, many of which are listed below, please contact
the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre on 0161 275 2920.

These images were provided by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource
Centre, who hold the copyright.

Bernie Grant Archives: Bernie Grant
was the most senior of the first Black politicians elected to British
Parliament. The collection is original documentation and publications
relating to his personal life and role.

Papers of the Institute of Jewish Affairs. The Institute was established in 1941 and these records
include press information, minute books, correspondence and legal issues.
Legal issues includes records. on human rights, international conventions
on genocide and racial discrimination, and others.

Suggested reading

Links
are provided to records on Copac for these items. The Copac library catalogue gives free access to the merged online catalogues of major University, Specialist, and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library. For more information about accessing items see the FAQs on the Copac website.

Steve Cohen, Immigration controls, the family and the welfare state:
a handbook of law, theory, politics and practice for local authority,
voluntary sector and welfare state workers. (London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers, 2001) Records
on Copac

Steve Cohen, No one is illegal: asylum and immigration control past and present. (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books Ltd, 2003) Records
on Copac

Steve Cohen, Debra Hayes and Beth Humphries, Social work, immigration and asylum: debates, dilemmas and ethical issues for social work and social care practice. (London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2004) Records
on Copac

Steve Cohen, Standing on the shoulders of fascism: from immigration control to the strong state. (Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books Ltd, 2006) Records
on Copac

Steve Cohen and Nadia Siddiqi, What would you do if your fiancée
went to the moon? (Manchester: Manchester immigration wives and fiancées
campaign, Manchester city council, 1985)

Steve Cohen, It's the same old story: immigration controls against
Jewish, Black and Asian people, with special reference to Manchester,
(Manchester: Manchester City Council Public Relations Office, 1987)

Steve Cohen, From the Jews to the Tamils: Britain's mistreatment of
refugees. (Manchester: Manchester Law Centre, 1988)

Guardian: Immigration and asylum:
provides access to a collection of news stories relating to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK which have been taken from the Guardian newspaper. These cover a range of topics including: case studies of individual refugees, immigration law, illegal immigrants and the social welfare and detention of immigrants.

Joint Council for the Welfare of
Immigrants: (JCWI) is an independent UK based organisation which
works to achieve justice for immigrants and asylum seekers to the UK.
It also has the full-text of a number of fact sheets which provide basic
information on current British immigration and nationality laws.

Minorities of Europe:
Minorities of Europe (MoE) was established in 1995 and has member organisations in a number of European countries. MoE was established as a result of the Council of Europe's campaign against racism, anti-semitism, xenophobia and intolerance across the continent of Europe.

No One is Illegal: (NOII) UK
website that challenges the ideology of immigration controls and campaigns
for their total abolition. Website include full-text of the 'no-one
is illegal' series of pamphlets.

Origination: provides a gateway to websites that help to document immigrant cultures' present in Britain.

TANDIS: Tolerance and non-discrimination
information system: created by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights to provide a central information point on issues to
tolerance and non-discrimination in OSCE member states. Topics covered
include: anti-semitism in Europe; hate crime; homophobia; racial discrimination;
Roma and travellers; sexual discrimination; freedom of religion; intolerance
and extremism on the Internet.

Voices on anti-semitism: a podcast series: maintained by the United States Holocaust Museum. It provides free access to a collection of audio interviews of personal reflections on Anti-semitism in the modern world which were recorded during 2006/7. They include contributions from eminent political scientists and Jewish Holocaust survivors.

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